


After Worlds

by Burning_wings



Category: Original Work
Genre: Early Work, Eating Disorders, F/F, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, M/M, Original Character Death(s), Original Character(s), Post-Apocalypse, Scars, Starvation, lots of blood, murder??, super powers??, this is a fuckin wild ride
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-23
Updated: 2018-08-23
Packaged: 2019-07-01 16:03:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15777429
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Burning_wings/pseuds/Burning_wings





	After Worlds

I smiled into the pouring rain, and ran for my life. The cracked pavement was slippery and hard under my bare feet, as I ran down the unkempt and ancient road. Shoes in my bloody hand, I should've known flip flops was a terrible idea, and bag heavy with stolen food strapped across my back, I sprinted down the deserted street. I was so close to my hideout, I could almost see it. I say hideout but at this point is wasn't just a hideout, it was home. My home. even in this fucked up world, where I was on my own at 15 years old, I had a home of my own.

The warm rain pelted my face, and stung my cheeks as I sprinted around another bend. The bottoms of my feet were completely torn up by now, but the bandages, even as soaking wet as they were, did help. I could actually see my hideout, no, home. I could see my home now, an old yellow two story house. It had two doors, ten windows, the paint was chipping in places. Ivy covered more than half of the house, and most of the shingles were missing, but it was home. When I saw that rackety old building I sprinted even faster than I even thought possible. I was so close 20 yards… 15 yards… 10 yards… 7 yards… 5 yards... then a cool wet hand grabbed my shoulder wrenching me backwards onto my ass. I fell hard on the waterlogged grass also known as my backyard. I had already been soaked through but falling into muddy water up my ass did NOT help. I reached into my bag and quickly grabbed a clicker. I clicked it three times and the man holding me down just looked confused, he held the knife to my throat and motioned for me to stand up. For a second I doubted that they would come, but as I started to sit up, my dogs ran at me from all directions. They pounced on the man on top of me and basically ripped his face off. There was blood fucking everywhere. The rest of the men chasing me backed off after that and quickly ran away before my dogs chased after them. I watched them run away for a few seconds before it registered that the other man had stopped screaming. I looked over and immediately regretted it, I never realized how much blood is actually in a human body. One of my dogs noticed me staring and ripped off a piece of the man's flesh and brought it over to me. He dropped it into my lap as an offering, and I immediately puked what little I had in my stomach as I hadn't actually eaten in a week.

The other survivors had been after me for months, but this encounter had been way too close for comfort. And now that they’d seen where I'd been living, I'd have to move, fucking again.

* * *

Now let me give you a little backstory, seven years ago there was a war. Within the first couple weeks most people were dead, either because of the radiation poisoning, or because of the shit that came after I would never know. So because everyone was dead there were no more comforts, no more electricity, no more heating, no more running water, or consistent food supplies, and especially no more medicine. So right after the food ran out a plague arrived killing most of the rest of everybody else. So now there was almost nobody left anyway, and then if things were to get any worse they did. People started forming groups, or gangs if you will. And if there are groups, the groups will fight and form feuds, so even more people died, and are dying. So here we are it's just me, a 15 year old girl, alone, and fighting against all odds to stay alive, and trust me when I say I'm not going down without a fight.

* * *

Once I finished throwing up bile, I got up out of the bloody grass and stumbled towards the rickety yellow house. When I got inside the backdoor, the first thing I did was ensure all the windows and doors were bolted shut, even if I knew that most of them were broken and it wouldn't help.

After I was sure nobody could get in I picked up the backpack filled with all of the stolen food and water, dropped it in the kitchen, and headed upstairs towards the room I'd been sleeping in for the past few weeks. The walls were a deep shade of indigo and the windowsills were lavender, a pretty cliche teenage girls room if you ask me. But, I had a pretty damn comfortable place to sleep, so I'm not complaining. I peeled off my sopping wet, and bloody, clothes, and dumped them in a pile on the floor, not bothering to clean them or salvage them. I opened the dresser and picked out a pair of dark blue jeans, a black tee shirt and my pair of black combat boots.

I grabbed a whole bunch of the tee shirts and jeans and shoved them into a small bag, if I had to move again I was going to be sure as hell I brought some clothes I knew fit me. I grabbed my dripping hair and pulled it into a tight ponytail. I’m gonna have to give myself a haircut soon. When I looked up I caught a glimpse of myself in the broken shards of an old mirror. I picked up a larger piece and the first thing I noticed were the older more promanant scars from my youth. I sighed when I noticed the cut today's encounter had left on my neck, but I was grateful that it wasn't deep enough to be a problem, in fact I doubted it would even leave a scar. I looked at the mirror again, my eyes were somewhat bloodshot and had some pretty intense bags. Another notable difference was that I now had flecks of gold in my otherwise clear gray eyes. That was the thing all of the rest of the survivors all had in common, we all had speckles of gold in our eyes. My now dead ex used to say that we had the stars trapped in our eyes, and I believed her. But now I know better. I looked away from the mirror picked up the bag of clothes, and dropped the mirror shard. I watched as it shattered into millions of sparkles across the floor, I shouldn't have to spend every second of my life hoping that I'll live to see tomorrow, because that’s not what 16 year olds should have to do. But for now there was nothing I could do to stop it, so I picked up my flannel sweater, tied it around my waist, and headed back to the kitchen.

I opened the bag and all of the food I'd taken spilled out all over the kitchen floor. I took a package of old hot dogs off of the floor and started a small fire in the oven with some dry paper and wooden objects from around the house. I grabbed a longer stick off the floor and cooked the hot dogs one by one. It reminded me of the days when my parents used to bring me and my little siblings outside to the fire pit at the compound, we would roast hot dogs and marshmallows and all other sorts of junk foods. We would even try to roast Doritos and cheezeballs, and they would actually taste pretty good.

The hot dogs tasted just as great as they did then, if not a little bit burned. I hadn’t eaten in about a week, but that only made them that much better. Once I’d eaten half the pack, I decided to smoke the extras for later, and looked in the bag for more food and found a chocolate bar. I savored every second of it's sweetness. It reminded me of Halloween, before the war. Obviously. When I had gone out with one of my best friends and we dressed as characters from Voltron, I was Lance and she was Pidge because she was shorter, and I was super flirty. We’d been really close and we’d gotten a ton of candy that year. Now I don't even know if she’s still alive, and if she is, I hope to god that she’s ok. My whole neighborhood was handing out candy, all of them were so friendly, all of them were still alive, and I wasn't quite so alone.

As I was sitting at the rotting table, reminiscing about the past I quickly realized I was gonna have to move, again. The only problem was how, when and where I was going to move. A few minutes went by and then I heard a sharp rattling at the backdoor. I snapped my head around and stared at the window, frozen with fear. I saw a boy's face. He couldn’t have been any older than me and the look of terror on his face told me what I already knew, well the huge cut helped, but i knew within an instant what had happened. I knew the fear in his eyes and I knew the cuts and bruises from being captured by the group Qr8. I was terrified, and frozen from fear. I wanted to curl up in a ball and ignore him, but they had gotten that poor boy too, and I couldn't just abandon another survivor.

 

“Please.” he yelled at me, his voice shaking with terror. “Please , th-they have knives, an-and they’ll, they’ll kill me, please you, you have to let me in!” I hesitated for a moment but then I sprinted over and unlocked the door. Not a second had gone by after I unlocked the door before he burst in. He sprinted past me and ran up the stairs. I quickly closed and locked the door just in time to see the dogs growling at Qr8 members who had chased the boy. I turned away from the window and went to go look for the boy, confident that my dogs would keep them away.

When I finally found him he had gotten into the closet and had hidden himself under one of the shelves. He looked at me with relief but there was still a hint of fear.

“I really cannot thank you enough” he said with a still quaking voice, “I mean you could've left me out there to die, but you didn't,” he finally looked up at me and made eye contact, “thank you.”

“No problem, what’s your name?”

“Kai. Um, Kai Emmerson. What's your name?” I was slightly confused by the use of his last name, but I didn't want to seem weird, so I copied him.

“Emery, um, Sallow.” He stood up.

“Nice to meet you, Emery.” I backed up out of the closet and motioned for him to follow me.

“Come with me. We need to address your wounds before they get infected.”

“Alright, just first I, um, first I need to know I can trust you. Like, um, I mean if you’re part of that group…”

“Qr8”

“Ya, whatever, Qr8. if you’re one of them then I really need to leave.”

“Don't worry,” I said turning away, “I'm not one of them.” flashbacks of my time there quickly came over me and I stumbled on the third to last stair a little bit, but I think I played it cool by jumping off the next stair onto the floor.

“Oh,” he said following me down the stairs, “Um, ok?” If he noticed me on the stairs, he didn't say anything.

We turned towards the kitchen and I grabbed a chair to open the cabinet and get the medical supplies. I’m short, shut up.after a few minuets of me rummaging through the cabinet he finally spoke up.

“I need to go back,” he said almost in a whisper, “they still have my baby sister and I…” I cut him off.

“You What?” I whipped my head around to see if he was joking. He wasn’t. “What is wrong with you!”

“Well I can't leave her there! They'll kill her. She’s only seven, I can't just leave her there to die!”

“Dammit Kai, I’ve only known you for like, what, 5 minutes and you already want to get yourself killed.” I pinched the bridge of my nose, “It's hard enough to survive out here on your own, much less than with three people and especially if one of them is a seven year old. At least with them she’ll have food and water.”

“No she won't. That’s why we need to get her out. If they don’t kill her straight away then they’ll just leave her to die, or they’ll sell her like they did that other girl! And if that happens then we won't be able to find her again.”

“Fine.” I said turning back around to grab the supplies I missed. “Fine, we’ll get her but we’re gonna need a plan. We’re not running in there without one. I know how that turns out and it’s not pretty.” My voice turned cold and my eyes hardened so that it was obvious that this wasn’t a conversation that was going to happen. He flinched slightly as I stood over him.

“God what happened to you that was so bad that you can’t even attempt to care about a little girl!” I stared at him for a second before he noticed the bloody stuffed animal sticking out of my bag. After a second he realized what he said and what the stuffed lamb meant and he took a step back. “Oh my god. I'm so sorry, I didn’t…”

“Don't.” I said cutting him off and turning around to put the bandages and disinfectant the counter, and to glaring at him. “Bring that up again and I’ll slit your throat.” I climbed down from the chair and grabbed the paper towels from under the sink. He gulped and sat down at the table guiltily. I placed all of the medical supplies down next to him and sat down in the chair nearest to him. I looked at him and tried to make eye contact, a second went by and his eyes refused to meet mine. “I’m sorry I snapped at you. I've just been on my own for a long time.” He still didn’t look at me. “I promise I won’t actually slit your throat.” I smirked, he let out a low chuckle and finally turned to look me in the eyes.

“I accept your apology. But I still shouldn’t have said that.” After a second of silence I looked away and grabbed a small towel off the table and doused it in rubbing alcohol. “This might sting a little bit.” I grimaced and started to dab the cuts on his face. He winced in pain, but he never said a word. After I finished cleaning the bigger cuts I got out the sewing needle and a bit of thread from my bag. “Alright, this is going to hurt like a bitch. If you want to bite something while I do this I won't judge.”

“That might be a good plan.” he said grabbing another towel off the counter while I threaded sanitized the needle with the rubbing alcohol.

“You ready?”

“Not really.”

“Well you're gonna have to suck it up buttercup.” I said with a smirk. He smirked back, but in reality it was more of a grimace, and then stuffed the cloth in his mouth.

I started to sew the cut on his face first and as soon as the needle pushed through the skin he yelled out in pain and his eyed filled with tears. I got through sewing the cut as fast as I could. By the time I was done there were tears streaming down his face, but other then that he seemed ok.

“You alright?” I asked as I was cleaning the rest of the blood off his face.

“Peachy.” he said grimacing.

“The cut wasn't too bad and I think with the scar that’ll leave you’ll look pretty badass.”

“Badass wasn't the point. The point was to survive.” he said frowning at me.

“I know. I was just trying to shed a little bit of light on this hellhole of a situation.” I said trying to get him to smile back at me. I lifted up a mirror shard and handed it to him, and after about 10 seconds my mission was successful.

“I mean even if it wasn't the point it still makes me look cool. Right?” he said as he looked back at me.

“Absolutely.” I smiled. “Ok, so you’re gonna want to go change out of those disgusting clothes. Upstairs take a right and go to the last door in the hallway. I have no clue whose it was but you should probably be able to find some clothes that will fit you.”

“Ok. Um, thanks. Again.” He smiled before walking away. He came back about 20 minutes later wearing basically the same thing, except he wasn’t soaking wet anymore. And his shirt was about three sizes too small.

“Comfortable?”

“Oh my god, yes! It’s weird though, the clothes that were there fit me perfectly.”

“I mean that is weird, but I wouldn’t say ‘perfectly,’ but it’s as good as we’re gonna get right now. Anyway we have more pressing matters than your shirt that’s too small.”

"Um excuse you" he said putting is hands on his hips "It's a crop top." he struck a sassy pose and realized exactly what I'd been hoping. This boy is gay. Good, one less thing I have to worry about. I chuckled and rubbed my forehead. After a second of letting him revel in his embarrassment of the fact that I found him being in the closet, and then accidentally coming out via Crop top, I grabbed the car keys from inside one of the drawers in the cabinet next to me.

“You have a working car?” His eyes brightened at the thought.

“Well I mean it’s not mine, but the owners won’t be using it anymore.” A moment of awkward silence went by, “How about you go around the house and try to pack anything that might be useful.”

“Good plan.” He walked away and I watched him go. I didn’t fully trust him yet but he’s all I have for now, even if he's an idiot.

About three hours went by and we packed everything that might be useful into the car, which wasn't much. “Alright, let's get going then.” I smiled as I grabbed a bag and put it into the car.

“Sounds good, But there’s one flaw in that plan, we still haven’t figured out how to get Katie.”

“I know but before we go and get your sister, we need to have a place set up so we can plan out exactly how to get her with the least casualties.”

“Ok.” he paused and looked around, a little embarrassed. ”Can you drive?”

“Well enough,” I said walking around to the back of the car. I clicked the dog clicker and opened the trunk. Kai looked at me with confusion that quickly turned to fear as he saw my dogs run towards us. All of my dogs ran towards me and stopped just before jumping into the car, it was a van, so it could hold all 6 dogs, Kai, me and at least 2 other people. The dogs stood under the umbrella and they each shook off before entering the van. After all of the dogs were in the car We went back into the house to make sure we didn’t forget anything. I grabbed my sister’s old doll out of one of the extra bags on the counter, grateful I didn’t forget it, and called for Kai. After about a minute he showed up. “Well you clean up nice.” I said when he came down the stairs. He had combed his hair and had changed into a nicer pair of jeans, and sneakers. He had put on a black sweatshirt over his crop top but I still chuckled at the thought.

“Ready to go?” he said as he handed me another bag and took the umbrella from my hand.

“Yep, but let me grab one more thing.” I said as I remembered the extra bag of food I’d hidden in the back room. Right as I was walking back to the kitchen I heard banging on the door. I dropped the bag and ran to Kai. His face was white as a sheet. “Run.” I yelled as I sprinted past him towards the door.

“Get to the car. Now!”

Once I got into the car I grabbed the keys out of my pocket and started the car. By the time the car had started kai was sitting next to me on the passenger’s side. I pulled out of the driveway as fast possibly could and got the fuck out of there.

For a few minutes all I could hear was my heartbeat, and then I noticed Kai's irregular breathing, and I looked at him. His face was still pale as he looked out the window and I turned on the CD player and Taylor Swift started to sing. A few more minutes went by, and then the dogs started to growl. The look of fear Kai gave me made me chuckle.

“Down boys, this is Kai. He’s a friend.” The dogs immediately stopped and sat back down. I looked back at Kai. His head was down and his hands were covering his face.

“Kai buddy, you ok?” I asked slightly concerned.

“I don't like dogs, I'm definitely more of a cat person." I laughed a little bit at his pouty face and turned up the music. A few more songs went by and neither of us said anything. It was silence, but not the uncomfortable kind. "What if she’s not even there anymore. What if the gang that bought your sister bought Katie.” It was barely a whisper, and I almost missed it except for the fact that I still didn't fully trust him and my nerves were on edge. I pulled over and stared at him in horror and disbelief.

“How the fuck did you know about my sister? I never told you about that.”

“I overheard the gang talk about having sold a girl named Juniper, and them thinking about selling Katie... I'm sorry I just assumed... I, I'm so sorry.” I pulled back onto the road, and kept driving.

“Good excuse.” I grumbled. It was awkwardly quiet in the car for another 45ish minutes while Taylor sang trouble on repeat, until I pulled into an empty parking lot. I looked at the sign on the front of the store, 'stop and shop.' I stopped the car and parked it near the door. The windows in front weren’t broken so I assumed that it hadn't been ransacked yet. I handed Kai an empty bag.

“There should be bags inside as well. We need to stock up on food and other necessities, so grab as many non perishables as possible. Got it?”

“Got it.” Kai said as he got out of the car. I told the dogs to stay put and ran to the door. It was still raining outside and by the time I got inside I was already soaking wet, Kai was too.

“We should probably grab rain jackets and umbrellas too, huh.” I said smiling at Kai. He gave a small smile back, but that was all until he walked off. We went in opposite directions and I ended up in the women’s care section. I grabbed a few bottles of shampoo and conditioner, pads, tampons, a hairbrush, and about a million hair elastics. Just as I was leaving I grabbed a pregnancy test and hid it in my jacket pocket. Still only half of my bag was full, so I went over to the drink section and grabbed pretty much all the bottles of anything that didn’t go bad, so it was mostly water. I ran back to the car and emptied my bag. By the time we finished clearing out the store the entire car was jammed full of food and other necessities. We’d started to run out of room about halfway through so we took out the back seats and left them in the parking lot. Kai got back into the car and he looked pretty pleased with himself. I smiled too.

“What?” he looked at me, still smiling.

“Oh it’s nothing.” he said looking away from me.

“Just you know… I might have just found about the only surviving package of Twinkies.”

“You didn't” I said smiling even wider at him.

“I did, and I already ate one of them. But I did save you one, you know for saving my life and all.” he handed me a box. I stared at him with the biggest smile I’d had in a very long time. I scarfed the sweet treat down and turned on the car. Taylor began playing again, and we both looked at each other and threw the CD out the window. We left the parking lot in search of a house that we could stay in for a while. We searched for about an hour and we came up with nothing. And we were running out of gas. So we stopped at the nearest gas station. It must’ve been some sort of magic because the pump was broken and we got a whole tank full of gas and we found a few dozen things to hold the gas, so we filled them all and put them in our already overstuffed van.

"We're gonna need to find like a bus or something" Kai murmured as we tried to stuff another gas can into the car. "I would even settle for a schoolbus at this point."We got back on the road and searched for another 10 minutes before we ended up back at the house we were at before we’d been attacked.

It’d been burned to the ground.

I kept driving and after about another 45 minutes we stopped at a house that seemed O.K. I mean when I say house, it isn't  really a 'house.' Its fuckin huge. This place was a mansion if I've ever seen one.

I parked the car and let the dogs out while Kai went inside to ensure nobody was living there, and to see if the house, or, um, mansion, wasn’t too rotted inside. It took about 5 seconds before we realized that people were definitely living there, and we definitely weren't welcome.

 


End file.
